The Basics*
What you need to do is simple. Pick the top five men and women in the order you think they’ll finish in this year’s UROC. That’s it.

The winner will be chosen as follows:

Inexact Top Finisher Picks – The first round is judged on the number of each contestant’s picks (up to 10) that show up anywhere in the top-five men or top-five women. In other words, a contest entrant gets 1 point for picking a top-five woman or man who finishes in that range regardless of position. The contestants with the most points in Round 1 move to Round 2.

Exact Top Finisher Picks – Contestants who moved on are now ranked by the highest number of exact matches (i.e., a contestant gets a point only when their second-place pick finishes exactly second).

Top-Down Perfection – If a tie remains between two or more contestants, the winner of that tie will be determined (a) first, by the number of correctly predicted first-place finishers (men and women), (b) if a tie remains, then by number of correctly predicted seconds, (c) and so on with random draw being the last resort tie breaker.

We’re excited to announce that this prediction contest is open to everyone, no matter where in the world you live! Thanks so much to Ultimate Direction for making that happen!

The contest will close at 8 p.m. MDT on Friday, September 27.

To follow all of our UROC coverage, subscribe to iRunFar via RSS or via email. In addition, following us on Twitter will insure that you receive all of the live coverage we provide before, during, and after the race!

The PrizesAs noted above, Ultimate Direction is providing great prize packages to the top-three contestants in this prediction contest, no matter where they live.

All three winners will receive their choice of an Ultimate Direction running vest* and an UD Jurek Collection Endure.

The ContestWe apologize that the contest does not include all UROC entrants, including some very strong runners. However, we’ve not been able to procure the full entrants list. In light of this, we’ve had to use the elite-runners list on the race website as well as a few additions that we were made aware of earlier. Don’t worry, you’re all in the same boat! ;-)

[The prediction contest is now closed.]

*The Details
Only one entry per person. If you enter early and wish to change your picks before the deadline, you may replace those picks–please just use the exact same name and email address on subsequent entries. We suppose you don’t need to make all eight picks, but be aware that a non-pick won’t help you win. You can only choose a runner once.

No hedging bets, finding loopholes, or other funny business–we reserve the right to invalidate any entry that doesn’t follow in the spirit of fairness.

The Hints
In an effort to help you, the iRunFar reader, make the best picks, we have previews and insight that could aid you in your selection. However, you’ve got to do the reading on your own…. and we’d recommend it, as some top “entrants” will not be running the race. That’s the only hint we’ll give here.

We’ll also be publishing pre-race interviews, check out the previews for links to the interviews.

The Closing
If you want to talk through your ideas before making picks, go for it. For those wishing to go public on their predictions, please leave some or all of your picks in a comment after making your official selections. Go ahead, put your mouth where your mind is! Want to talk some smack about your predictions… we welcome it!

[Editor’s Notes: As always, a special thanks to Mitchell Goodman for once again being the brains and brawn behind this contest. There would be no contest without him. Also, props to the VHTRC Bull Run Run Pick-the-Winner contests of yore. My enjoyment of those contests gave rise to this contest.]

Gah! With the changes in the women's field (Howe in-out-in, Arnold out) in the last day, I guess the lesson is to wait until the last minute to make your picks. Any chance (pretty please) future prediction contests will let us change our picks til the day of? LetsRun lets you do it ;-)

Cameron Clayton rockets out to an early lead….and sets the FKT for the first 50 miles of Breck-to-Vail and then in a hypoxic delirium is lured away by a harem of sorority groupies and parties the rest of the weekend at a spontaneous Copper Mountain rave. Official DNF – but to most of the male population of the world, he's the real winner.

Krar is right behind Clayton…however, the many resident Coloradan Sasquatch sense The Beard and come out in droves to defend their mating territories from the invading chin quaff. Krar crosses the finish line in 4th-place battered and bloodied, but all bow in fear and awe as Krar's Beard bellows a victorious Bigfoot mating call.

Sage sees his opportunity during a Krar v Sasquatch throwdown. He sprints out to a commanding lead….however he takes a wrong turn at Two-Elk and winds up, quite literally, in "Outer Mongolia" (Vail skiers know what I'm talking about) . He realizes he's off course when he collides with an early season skier riding a Back Bowl poma. Sage then runs a series of ungodly splits to set an unbreakable CR for the "147 km version of UROC" AND grabs the 3rd podium spot.

Dakota, having a quiet racing schedule this summer, has used the time to become conversant in the 4 other languages that Kilian speaks. He regales Kilian with his dry wit and piercing observations in Catalan as they flow like water through the most technical portions of the race. Just before the finish line, Dakota describes in French-accented Portuguese all the outstanding varieties of late-season wild mushrooms growing in the woods around Vail. He then slips across the finish line as the UROC Champion while Kilian is foraging in the woods to gather the ingredients for a post-race meal of ravioli funghi he's preparing for his Salomon teammates. A moment or two later, a mushroom-bounty toting and blissed-out KJ crosses the line in 2nd.

And finally, while Dakota and Sage are receiving their trophies Kilian and Emelie have hooked-up with Anton K. and are already on their way to setting the new FKT for Nolan's 14…with throngs of adoring fans cheering from the valleys below and the cool vid-cam-heli-bot hovering above. (Movie release and live-appearance schedule soon to be announced)

Thank you for opening up this competition to the world. I participated all the way from Singapore. Thanks so much for all the coverage and all the great work you do on this website! so, the top 3 in the list you posted are the winners?